Nokia has announced that they have completed the acquisition of Earthmine, a 3D street-level imaging specialist firm with technology that Nokia plans to use to bolster its digital maps offerings. Such 3D mapping capabilities should give Nokia some help in competing with Google Maps both in the native Windows 8 maps and through the HERE apps for other platforms, with the app going live on the iTunes App Store yesterday.
The Earthmine team will join Nokia’s Location and Commerce business division, with the terms of the acquisition kept on the hush hush.
Commenting on the acquisition, John Ristevski, co-CEO of Earthmine, said:
“We are very excited to be joining Nokia – a company with a huge presence and vision in mapping. We could not hope for a better place to fulfill and accelerate our mission of indexing the world in 3D”
Photograph: Civis